"BlackBerry CEO on the future of tablets"… For who?

“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,” Heins said in an interview yesterday at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles. “Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.”

I saw this get posted around a few times yesterday, and I can understand why; BlackBerry CEO sounding out of touch is obviously a fun story.

I haven't found the actual interview he is being quoted from, but my guess is that this is out of context. We know enough about the tablet market to know that there are three camps who are doing well; Apple being the biggest, selling iPads at a premium (and making money), everyone else selling devices virtually at cost (Amazon with the Kindle Fire, Google with the Nexus 7), and Samsung occupying a much smaller space in between — selling Galaxy tablets at premium prices, but in far less volume than Apple. (I should note that I think Microsofts position in the market isn't yet clear — I wouldn't call the Surface a failure, but I just haven't seen enough data yet to make a clear call.)

If he is talking about there being no reason for people to have a tablet in 5 years, then he's probably wrong. But if he is saying that for a BlackBerry (or Motorola, Samsung, LG etc) to have a tablet in 5 years is not going to be a good business model, then I'm inclined to agree with him.